Method for recovering waste liquid, maintenance station, cleaning robot and system for recovering waste liquid

ABSTRACT

A method for recovering waste liquid includes: obtaining a liquid usage amount of a cleaning robot, and controlling a maintenance station to recover the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot according to the liquid usage amount.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present disclosure claims priority of Chinese Patent Application No. 202110161383.0, filed on Feb. 5, 2021, titled “METHOD FOR RECOVERING WASTE LIQUID, MAINTENANCE STATION, CLEANING ROBOT AND SYSTEM FOR RECOVERING WASTE LIQUID”, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to the technical field of robots, and in particular, relates to a method for recovering waste liquid, a maintenance station, a cleaning robot and a system for recovering waste liquid.

BACKGROUND

With the development of robot technologies, cleaning robots have gradually entered ordinary families, and they gradually liberate people from heavy and trivial housework, and provide great convenience for people.

Typical robots can not only mop the floor, but also recycle the waste liquid generated in the process of mopping the floor to a waste tank, thus preventing the humidity of the floor from being too high. When the waste liquid in the waste tank needs to be cleaned, the user needs to clean the waste tank manually, which is troublesome.

SUMMARY

An embodiment of the present disclosure provides a method for recovering waste liquid, including: obtaining a liquid usage amount of a cleaning robot, and controlling a maintenance station to recover the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot according to the liquid usage amount.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

One or more embodiments are illustrated by pictures in corresponding attached drawings, and this does not constitute limitation of the embodiments. Elements labeled with the same reference numerals in the attached drawings represent similar elements, and unless otherwise stated, figures in the attached drawings do not constitute scale limitation.

FIG. 1 is a schematic flowchart diagram of a method for recovering waste liquid provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure, in which the executive body is an electronic device such as a maintenance station or a mobile terminal;

FIG. 2 is a schematic flowchart diagram of S12 shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic flowchart diagram of a method for recovering waste liquid provided by another embodiment of the present disclosure, in which the executive body is an electronic device such as a maintenance station or a mobile terminal;

FIG. 4 is a schematic flowchart diagram of a method for recovering waste liquid provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure, in which the executive body is an electronic device such as a cleaning robot or a mobile terminal;

FIG. 5 is a schematic flowchart diagram of a method for recovering waste liquid provided by another embodiment of the present disclosure, in which the executive body is an electronic device such as a cleaning robot or a mobile terminal;

FIG. 6 is a schematic flowchart diagram of S23 shown in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a schematic flowchart diagram of S21 shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 8 is a front view of a maintenance station provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a waste liquid collecting assembly shown in FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is another schematic structural diagram of the waste liquid collecting assembly shown in FIG. 8;

FIG. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a cleaning robot provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 12 is a schematic circuit structure diagram of a cleaning robot provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 13 is a schematic structural diagram of a waste liquid collection box assembly provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 14 is a schematic structural diagram of a system for recovering waste liquid provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 15 is a schematic circuit structure diagram of an electronic device provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In order to make objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present disclosure clearer, the present disclosure will be further described in detail with reference to attached drawings and embodiments. It shall be appreciated that, the specific embodiments described herein are only used to explain the present disclosure, and are not used to limit the present disclosure. Based on the embodiments of the present disclosure, all other embodiments obtained by those of ordinary skill in the art without creative labor belong to the scope claimed in the present disclosure.

It shall be noted that, all features in the embodiments of the present disclosure can be combined with each other if there is no conflict, and this is within the scope claimed in the present disclosure. In addition, although functional modules are divided in the schematic diagrams of the device and logical sequences are shown in the flowchart diagrams, in some cases, the steps shown or described can be performed in module division and sequences different from those in the schematic diagrams and flowchart diagrams. Furthermore, words such as “first”, “second” and “third” used in the present disclosure do not limit the data and execution order, but only distinguish same or similar items with basically the same functions and effects.

Embodiment 1

This embodiment provides a method for recovering waste liquid, which may be applied to any suitable device. The device may be a maintenance station or a mobile terminal, and the mobile terminal may be any of smart phones, smart watches and tablet computers. The maintenance station in the embodiment of the present disclosure may recover the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot. In some embodiments, the maintenance station may also realize at least one of the following functions: providing clean liquid and power for the cleaning robot, cleaning and drying the mopping parts carried by the cleaning robot or the like.

Referring to FIG. 1, the method S100 for recovering waste liquid includes:

S11. obtaining a liquid usage amount of the cleaning robot.

In this embodiment, the liquid usage amount is the amount of liquid consumed by the cleaning robot every time it performs the cleaning operation, wherein the liquid here may be clean water or liquid containing cleaning chemical components. Generally, the liquid in the clean liquid tank of the cleaning robot will flow to the mopping parts, and the cleaning robot will mop the floor with the wet mopping parts. Relatively speaking, when the cleaning robot performs cleaning operations, the liquid in the clean liquid tank is consumed and reduced. Therefore, the liquid usage amount is the amount of liquid consumed by the cleaning robot.

By way of example, but not for limitation, the cleaning robot will collect the waste liquid generated during the cleaning operation when it performs the cleaning operation, and after the cleaning robot finishes the cleaning operation, it will automatically drive back to the maintenance station so that the maintenance station recovers the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot. After driving back to the maintenance station, the cleaning robot will automatically send the liquid usage amount consumed by this cleaning operation to the maintenance station. In this way, the maintenance station obtains the liquid usage amount of the cleaning robot.

For example, the cleaning robot starts to move out of the maintenance station at time t0 to perform cleaning operations. At time t100, the cleaning robot drives back to the maintenance station. Therefore, the liquid usage amount is the amount of liquid consumed by the cleaning robot during the period from time t0 to t100. It shall be appreciated that, the cleaning robot may suspend the cleaning operation during any period from time t0 to t100, and in this period, no water will flow out for mopping. In this case, the cleaning robot may still use the amount of liquid consumed during the period from time t0 to t100 as the liquid usage amount.

In some embodiments, when the cleaning robot is unable to drive back to the maintenance station due to lack of sufficient power during the cleaning operation, the cleaning robot may package the amount of liquid consumed by this cleaning operation into a waste liquid recovery instruction and send it to the maintenance station. Alternatively, when the cleaning robot is moved back to the maintenance station for charging, the cleaning robot sends the waste liquid recovery instruction to the maintenance station, and the maintenance station analyzes the waste liquid recovery instruction and extracts the liquid usage amount therefrom.

In this embodiment, the cleaning robot records the liquid usage amount every time the cleaning robot performs the cleaning operation and consumes liquid. There are many ways to detect the liquid usage amount. For example, the cleaning robot may calculate the liquid usage amount according to a unit liquid consumption flow and a liquid consumption time collected by a clean liquid flowmeter. The unit liquid consumption flow is the volume of liquid output by the cleaning robot to the mopping part in unit time. For example, if the unit time is one second, then correspondingly, the unit liquid consumption flow is the volume of liquid output by the cleaning robot to the mopping part per second, and the liquid consumption time is the period during which the cleaning robot uses the liquid for each cleaning operation.

For another example, a pressure sensor is provided at the bottom of a clean liquid tank of the cleaning robot, and when the cleaning operation is started, the cleaning robot obtains an initial pressure sent by the pressure sensor. When the cleaning robot drives back to the maintenance station, the cleaning robot obtains the last pressure sent by the pressure sensor again. Therefore, the cleaning robot subtracts the initial pressure from the last pressure to obtain a pressure difference, and then calculates the liquid usage amount according to the pressure difference.

S12. controlling the maintenance station to recover the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot according to the liquid usage amount.

In some embodiments, the maintenance station can obtain the liquid usage amount, thereby efficiently and reliably recovering the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot according to the liquid usage amount and any suitable algorithms. For example, the maintenance station may recover the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot quickly and reliably according to the PID algorithm in combination with the liquid usage amount.

As can be seen from the above description, the method can recover the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot quantitatively and intelligently without manual participation, thus improving the recovery efficiency and improving the user experience.

In some embodiments, S12 includes: calculating the current recovery time by the maintenance station according to the liquid usage amount, and controlling the maintenance station to recover the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot according to the current recovery time and a designated recovery time. For example, the maintenance station calculates the current recovery time according to a formula: t=W/P, wherein t is the current recovery time, W is the liquid usage amount, and P is the unit recovery flow of the maintenance station. The unit recovery flow of the maintenance station may be the volume of waste liquid recovered by the maintenance station. In addition, the designated recovery time may be a preset time length value, or the designated recovery time is equal to the product of the current recovery time multiplied by a preset coefficient.

By way of example, but not for limitation, the step of controlling the maintenance station to recover the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot according to the current recovery time and the designated recovery time may specifically includes: calculating the sum of the current recovery time and the designated recovery time, and controlling the maintenance station to recover the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot according to the sum. In this way, the waste liquid in the cleaning robot may be recovered more thoroughly.

For example, it is assumed that the current recovery time is 10 seconds and the designated recovery time is 2 seconds. Correspondingly, the sum of the current recovery time and the designated recovery time is calculated to be 12 seconds, and the maintenance station is controlled to work for 12 seconds to recover the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot.

In some embodiments, during the working process corresponding to the current recovery time, the maintenance station will continuously determine whether it receives a liquid signal, which indicates that the waste liquid is continuously input into the maintenance station. If the maintenance station receives the liquid signal, the maintenance station will continue to work until the current recovery time is finished. Then, the maintenance station again determines whether the liquid signal is received. If the liquid signal is received, the maintenance station continues to work (the time at which the maintenance station continues to work here is labeled as t01) until the waste liquid stops being continuously input into the maintenance station (the time at which the waste liquid stops being continuously input into the maintenance station is labeled as t02). Then, in order to ensure that all the waste liquid of the cleaning robot can be recovered, the maintenance station will continue to work for the designated recovery time after working for the two time periods (the two time periods are the time length between t01 and t02). With this method, the maintenance station can recover the waste liquid of the cleaning robot reliably and completely.

In some embodiments, the maintenance station may take the liquid usage amount as a reference quantity, and deeply determine the recovery amount of the waste liquid again. Therefore, referring to FIG. 2, S12 includes:

S121. determining the recovery amount of the waste liquid according to the liquid usage amount;

S122. controlling the maintenance station to recover the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot according to the recovery amount of the waste liquid.

The recovery amount of the waste liquid is the amount of the waste liquid that needs to be recovered by the maintenance station.

In this embodiment, the recovery amount of the waste liquid is the amount of waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot that is recovered accurately and reliably by the maintenance station to the greatest extent. Since the liquid consumption environment and the waste liquid collection environment vary among cleaning robots, even if the same amount of liquid is used, the waste liquid collected by each cleaning robot may be different. By determining the corresponding recovery amount of waste liquid according to the liquid usage amount, waste liquid collection requirements of various cleaning robots can be met, which may not only recover the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robots to the greatest extent, but also avoid waste of electric energy caused by idle operation of the maintenance station.

By way of example, but not for limitation, the liquid consumption of the cleaning robot requires the participation of various components. For example, the components may include a clean liquid tank, a first clean liquid pipe, a clean liquid solenoid valve, a clean liquid pump, a second clean liquid pipe and a clean liquid flowmeter. Calculation errors may exist in one or more of the above components, which will result in the amount of liquid actually consumed being not equal to the liquid usage amount calculated. For example, the clean liquid flowmeter becomes not sensitive enough due to long-term use, and this may cause the liquid usage amount to be larger or smaller than the amount of liquid actually consumed. Alternatively, there is a gap in the clean liquid box, the liquid flowing out of the gap in the clean liquid box does not pass through the clean liquid flowmeter, and thus the clean liquid flowmeter cannot fully count the liquid usage amount of the cleaning robot. That is, the counted liquid usage amount is smaller than the amount of liquid actually consumed.

In the cleaning robot, it is certain to have some liquid loss, and this kind of liquid loss will affect the calculation error of the liquid usage amount. Generally, the cleaning robot sprays liquid to the mopping part, and the mopping part mops the floor. On the one hand, part of the liquid will be sucked into the mopping part so that the cleaning robot cannot recover this part of liquid, and part of the liquid will be absorbed by the floor, and the cleaning robot is also unable to recover this part of liquid. On the other hand, another part of the liquid will flow into other places, such as flowing out of the clean liquid tank but staying in the conduit, or being sprayed into the body of the cleaning robot or the like. Generally speaking, this kind of liquid loss will affect the calculation error of the liquid usage amount.

Similarly, since the calculation error of the liquid usage amount may occur in the cleaning robot, this phenomenon may also occur in the maintenance station.

Therefore, in some embodiments, referring to FIG. 3, before S121 is executed, the method S100 for recovering waste liquid further includes S120: obtaining the liquid loss coefficient. Correspondingly, S121 includes determining the recovery amount of the waste liquid according to the liquid loss coefficient and the liquid usage amount.

In this embodiment, the liquid loss coefficient is used to evaluate the liquid loss of the maintenance station in the process of recovering waste liquid and/or the liquid loss of the cleaning robot in the process of liquid consumption. The liquid loss coefficient is a coefficient that comprehensively summarizes the liquid loss of the maintenance station and/or the cleaning robot in the process of liquid consumption. The liquid loss of the cleaning robot in the process of liquid consumption includes the liquid absorption loss of the mopping part and/or the liquid absorption loss of the floor and/or liquid loss caused by other factors.

In some embodiments, the liquid loss coefficient may be a preset empirical constant. For example, the designer tests the liquid loss of the maintenance station for recovering the waste liquid of the cleaning robot as well as the liquid loss of the cleaning robot in the cleaning operation for many times, and accordingly generates the liquid loss coefficient according to the test data. For example, the liquid loss coefficient may be calculated according to algorithms such as the least square method or variance.

In some embodiments, the liquid loss coefficient may be calculated in real time by the maintenance station or the cleaning robot. Optionally, the liquid loss coefficient calculated at the current time may be applied to the next recovery process of waste liquid, so as to continuously and iteratively update the liquid loss coefficient and finally converge to an optimal liquid loss coefficient. According to the optimal liquid loss coefficient and the liquid usage amount, the maintenance station can calculate the recovery amount of the waste liquid reliably and accurately.

In some embodiments, the liquid loss coefficient is calculated according to the historical recovery amount when the maintenance station recovers the waste liquid of the cleaning robot and the historical liquid consumption when the cleaning robot performs the cleaning operation. For example, η=(M/N)*100%, wherein η is the liquid loss coefficient, M is the historical recovery amount, and N is the historical liquid consumption.

For convenience of description, the time at which the acquisition of the liquid loss coefficient is performed currently is recorded as a first designated time.

Optionally, the historical recovery amount is the waste liquid amount corresponding to the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot that is recovered by the maintenance station before the first designated time.

For example, after the cleaning robot completes the first cleaning operation, the maintenance station recovers the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot at t1, and ends the recovery operation at t10. During the time period from t1 to t10, the amount of waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot that is recovered by the maintenance station is M1.

After the cleaning robot completes the second cleaning operation, the maintenance station recovers the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot at t2, and ends the recovery operation at t20. During the time period from t2 to t20, the amount of waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot that is recovered by the maintenance station is M2. As compared to M2, M1 is the historical recovery amount.

After the cleaning robot finishes the second cleaning operation, the maintenance station recovers the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot at t3, and ends the recovery operation at t30. During the time period from t3 to t30, the amount of waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot that is recovered by the maintenance station is M3, and as compared to M3, either M1 or M2 may be the historical recovery amount.

In some embodiments, the historical recovery amount may be the amount of waste liquid corresponding to a recovery before and closest to the first designated time. Since the amount of waste liquid corresponding to the recovery closest to the first designated time may be selected as the historical recovery amount, the historical recovery amount has higher timeliness, and thus, it is possible to calculate the recovery amount of waste liquid required at the current time more accurately.

In some embodiments, the historical recovery amount may specifically be the total amount of waste liquid of the cleaning robot recovered by the maintenance station before the first designated time. Thus, as mentioned above, relative to M3, the sum of M1 and M2 may be the historical recovery amount.

In some embodiments, the historical recovery amount is calculated according to the historical recovery time when the maintenance station recovers the waste liquid of the cleaning robot and the unit recovery flow of the maintenance station. The historical recovery time may be the time spent by the maintenance station to recover all the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot, or the time spent by the maintenance station to recover a preset amount of waste liquid. For example, during the first cleaning operation, the maintenance station starts to recover the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot at t11 and recovers all the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot at t12. In this case, the time from t11 to t12 is the historical recovery time.

By way of example, but not for limitation, the unit recovery flow of the maintenance station may be the volume of the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot that is recovered by the maintenance in unit time. For example, the unit recovery flow of the maintenance station may be the volume of the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot that is recovered by the maintenance station per second, and the unit may be ml/s. Therefore, the historical recovery amount V=T*P, wherein V is the historical recovery amount, T is the historical recovery time, and P is the unit recovery flow of the maintenance station.

By way of example, but not for limitation, the historical liquid consumption is the amount of liquid consumed by the cleaning robot in the cleaning operation before the second designated time.

For convenience of description, a cleaning operation before and closest to the first designated time is recorded as the current cleaning operation.

For example, the second designated time is the time when the current cleaning operation is started.

In some embodiments, the historical liquid consumption is the amount of liquid consumed by the cleaning robot in a single cleaning operation before the second designated time.

For example, the amount of liquid consumed by the cleaning robot in order to complete the first cleaning operation, the second cleaning operation and the third cleaning operation is labeled as N1, N2 and N3, respectively, and N1 is the historical liquid consumption for the second cleaning operation. In the third cleaning operation, either N1 or N2 may be used as the historical liquid consumption.

In some embodiments, the historical liquid consumption is the total amount of liquid consumed by the cleaning robot in multiple cleaning operations before the second designated time.

In some embodiments, the historical liquid consumption is calculated according to the unit liquid consumption flow of the cleaning robot and the historical liquid consumption time. The unit liquid consumption flow is the volume of liquid output by the cleaning robot to the mopping part per second. The historical liquid consumption time may be the time consumed by the cleaning robot when it finishes the cleaning operation, or the time consumed by the cleaning robot when it performs a preset part of the cleaning operation. For example, before the second designated time, the cleaning robot starts to perform the first cleaning operation at t41, and finishes the cleaning operation at t42. In this case, the time from t41 to t42 is the historical liquid consumption time.

As mentioned above, this method can fully consider all kinds of errors and calculate the recovery amount of the waste liquid by combining the liquid loss coefficient with the liquid usage amount, so the calculated recovery amount of the waste liquid is more accurate.

In some embodiments, the maintenance station may send the liquid loss coefficient to the cleaning robot so that the cleaning robot corrects the liquid usage amount according to the liquid loss coefficient to obtain and return the correction amount of the waste liquid. Then, the maintenance station determines the recovery amount of the waste liquid according to the correction amount of the waste liquid. For example, the cleaning robot obtains the correction amount of the waste liquid according to the formula: Q=η*W, and sends the correction amount of the waste liquid to the maintenance station. The maintenance station takes the correction amount of the waste liquid as the recovery amount of the waste liquid, wherein Q is the correction amount of the waste liquid, η is the liquid loss coefficient, and W is the liquid usage amount. With this method, the cleaning robot may directly calculate the correction amount of the waste liquid and send it to the maintenance station so that the maintenance station can quickly determine the recovery amount of the waste liquid according to the correction amount of the waste liquid.

Different from the above embodiments, the maintenance station calculates the correction amount of the waste liquid according to the liquid loss coefficient and the liquid usage amount, and determines the liquid replenishment amount according to the correction amount of the waste liquid. With this method, the maintenance station can calculate a more reliable and accurate recovery amount of the waste liquid at one time without the participation of the cleaning robot.

As mentioned above, there are errors in the process of recovering the waste liquid or using the liquid by the maintenance station and/or the cleaning robot. However, according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the recovery amount of the waste liquid may be determined reliably and accurately by combining the liquid loss coefficient, which is beneficial for the maintenance station to recover the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot reliably, accurately and efficiently.

In order to explain in detail the benefits of the embodiment of the present disclosure in determining the recovery amount of the waste liquid in combination with the liquid loss coefficient, the following examples are provided herein for auxiliary understanding. These examples will not unduly limit the embodiments of the present disclosure, but only serve as auxiliary explanation. The following deductive processes all assume that the unit liquid consumption flow of the cleaning robot=the unit recovery flow of the maintenance station=1 ml/s.

Liquid loss, e.g., the liquid absorption loss of the mopping part and the liquid absorption loss of the floor, certainly exists in the process of liquid consumption by the cleaning robot. Such loss will cause the amount of waste liquid recovered by the cleaning robot to be less than the amount of liquid consumed by the cleaning robot in performing cleaning operations. However, in consideration of detection errors of components such as the flowmeter of the cleaning robot, the overall situation is that: for the cleaning robot, the detected liquid usage amount may be less than the amount of waste liquid recovered by the cleaning robot. For example, if the clean liquid actually ejected is large in amount, but the detected flow is very small because the flowmeter fails to operate normally, then it may appear that the detected liquid usage amount is less than the amount of waste liquid recovered by the cleaning robot.

Similarly, the maintenance station may have errors itself, and the detected recovery amount of waste liquid may be less than or greater than the liquid usage amount sent by the cleaning robot. Based on this fact, the following deduction is made hereinafter:

{circle around (1)} when there is an error in the cleaning robot and there is no error in the maintenance station, the following deduction is made:

it is assumed that when the cleaning robot performs the first cleaning operation, it actually uses 10 ml of liquid, but it is detected that 12 ml of liquid is used, and the liquid consumption time is 12 seconds. The cleaning robot sends 12 ml to the maintenance station to recover the waste liquid.

In theory, the maintenance station needs to recover 12 ml of waste liquid, but considering the liquid loss of the cleaning robot, when the maintenance station actually recovers 10 ml of waste liquid, all the waste liquid of the cleaning robot has been recovered, so the maintenance station only works for 10 seconds.

Liquid loss coefficient η=(10*1)/(1*12)=5/6.

Then, when the cleaning robot performs the second cleaning operation, it actually uses 8 ml of liquid, but it is detected that 10 ml of liquid is used, and the liquid consumption time is 10 seconds. The cleaning robot sends 10 ml to the maintenance station to recover the waste liquid.

Here, assuming that the liquid loss coefficient is not used for correction, the maintenance station theoretically needs to recover 10 ml of waste liquid, that is, it needs to work for 10 s. However, when the maintenance station actually recovers 8 ml of waste liquid, all the waste liquid of the cleaning robot is recovered, so the maintenance station actually only works for 8 s.

If the liquid loss coefficient is used for correction, since Q=η*W=(5/6)*10=25/3, the maintenance station takes the liquid correction quantity Q as the liquid replenishment amount, and after correction, the recovery time of waste liquid of the maintenance station=25/3/1=8.33. The 8.33 s actually required by the maintenance station after correction is not much different from the 8 s actually required by the maintenance station without correction, but is quite different from the 10 s theoretically required. Therefore, after correction, the error of the maintenance station may be reduced to a certain extent.

1.2 On the premise that the error detection of the cleaning robot becomes smaller:

it is assumed that when the cleaning robot performs the first cleaning operation, it actually uses 10 ml of liquid, but it is detected that 8 ml of liquid is used, and the time of liquid consumption is 8 s. The cleaning robot sends 8 ml to the maintenance station to recover the waste liquid.

In theory, the maintenance station needs to recover 8 ml of waste liquid. However, when the maintenance station recovers for 8 seconds, the waste liquid of the cleaning robot has not yet been completely recovered, and the maintenance station needs to continue to work for 2 seconds in order to recover the waste liquid of the cleaning robot completely. Therefore, the cleaning robot actually worked for 10 seconds.

Liquid loss coefficient η=10/8=5/4.

Then, when the cleaning robot performs the second cleaning operation, the cleaning robot actually uses 8 ml of liquid, but it is detected that 6 ml of liquid is used, and the time of liquid consumption is 6 seconds. The cleaning robot sends 6 ml to the maintenance station to recover the waste liquid.

Here, assuming that the liquid loss coefficient is not used for correction, the maintenance station theoretically needs to recover 6 ml of waste liquid. However, the maintenance station actually needs to recover 8 ml of waste liquid in order to recover all the waste liquid of the cleaning robot, so the maintenance station actually worked for 8 seconds.

If the liquid loss coefficient is used for correction, since Q=η*W=(5/4)*6=7.5, the recovery time of the maintenance station=7.5/1=7.5 after correction. The 7.5 s actually required by the maintenance station after correction is not much different from the 8 s actually required by the maintenance station without correction, but it is quite different from the 6 s theoretically required. Therefore, the error of the maintenance station may be reduced to a certain extent after correction.

{circle around (2)} When both the cleaning robot and the maintenance station have detection errors, the following deduction is made:

2.1 On the premise that the error detection of both the cleaning robot and the maintenance station becomes larger:

it is assumed that when the cleaning robot performs the first cleaning operation, it actually uses 10 ml of liquid, but it is detected that 12 ml of liquid is used, and the time of liquid consumption is 12 seconds. The cleaning robot sends 12 ml to the maintenance station to recover the waste liquid.

In theory, the maintenance station needs to recover 12 ml of waste liquid, but when the maintenance station recovers for 12 seconds, the waste liquid of the cleaning robot has not yet been recovered completely, and the maintenance station needs to continue to recover for 2 seconds in order to recover the waste liquid of the cleaning robot completely. Therefore, the cleaning robot actually works for 14 seconds.

Liquid loss coefficient η=14/12=7/6.

Then, when the cleaning robot performs the second cleaning operation, it actually uses 8 ml of liquid, but it is detected that 10 ml of liquid is used, and the time of liquid consumption is 10 seconds. The cleaning robot sends 10 ml to the maintenance station to recover the waste liquid.

Assuming that the liquid loss coefficient is not used for correction, the maintenance station theoretically needs to recover 10 ml, but only when the maintenance station actually recovers 12 ml of waste liquid, can all the waste liquid of the cleaning robot be recovered. Therefore, the maintenance station actually worked for 12 seconds.

If the liquid loss coefficient is used for correction, since Q=η*W=(7/6)*10=35/3, the recovery time of the maintenance station=35/3/1=11.66 after correction. The 11.66 s actually required by the maintenance station after correction is not much different from the 12 s actually required by the maintenance station without correction, but it is quite different from the 10 s theoretically required. Therefore, the error of the maintenance station may be reduced to a certain extent after correction.

2.2 On the premise that the error detection of both the cleaning robot and the maintenance station becomes smaller:

it is assumed that when the cleaning robot performs the first cleaning operation, it actually uses 10 ml of liquid, but it is detected that 8 ml of liquid is used, and the liquid consumption time is 8 s. The cleaning robot sends 8 ml to the maintenance station to recover the waste liquid.

In theory, the maintenance station needs to recover 8 ml of waste liquid, but when 6 ml of waste liquid is actually recovered, all the waste liquid of the cleaning robot has been recovered. Therefore, the maintenance station actually worked for 6 seconds.

Liquid loss coefficient η=6/8=3/4.

Then, when the cleaning robot performs the second cleaning operation, it actually uses 6 ml of liquid, but it is detected that 4 ml of liquid is used, and the liquid consumption time is 4 s. The cleaning robot sends 4 ml to the maintenance station to recover the waste liquid.

Here, assuming that the liquid loss coefficient is not used for correction, the maintenance station theoretically needs to recover 4 ml of waste liquid, but all the waste liquid of the cleaning robot has been recovered when the maintenance station actually recovers 2 ml of waste liquid, so the maintenance station actually worked for 2 seconds.

If the liquid loss coefficient is used for correction, since Q=η*W=(3/4)*4=3, the recovery time of the maintenance station=3/1=3 after correction. The 3 s actually required by the maintenance station after correction is not much different from the 2 s actually required by the maintenance station without correction, but is quite different from the 4 s theoretically required. Therefore, the error of the maintenance station may be reduced to a certain extent after correction.

2.3 On the premise that the error detection of the cleaning robot becomes larger and the error detection of the maintenance station becomes smaller:

it is assumed that when the cleaning robot performs the first cleaning operation, it actually uses 10 ml of liquid, but it is detected that 12 ml of liquid is used, and the liquid consumption time is 12 seconds. The cleaning robot sends 12 ml to the maintenance station for waste liquid recovery.

In theory, the maintenance station needs to recover 12 ml of waste liquid, but all the waste liquid of the cleaning robot has been recovered when the maintenance station actually recovers 10 ml of waste liquid. Therefore, the maintenance station actually worked for 10 seconds.

Liquid loss coefficient η=10/12=5/6.

Then, when the cleaning robot performs the second cleaning operation, it actually uses 8 ml of liquid, but it is detected that 10 ml of liquid is used, and the liquid consumption time is 10 s. The cleaning robot sends 10 ml to the maintenance station to recover the waste liquid.

Assuming that the liquid loss coefficient is not used for correction, the maintenance station theoretically needs to recover 10 ml of waste liquid, but all the waste liquid of the cleaning robot has been recovered when the maintenance station actually recovers 8 ml of waste liquid. Therefore, the maintenance station actually worked for 8 seconds.

If the liquid loss coefficient is used for correction, since Q=η*W=(5/6)*10=25/3, the recovery time of the maintenance station=25/3/1=8.33 after correction. The 8.33 s actually required by the maintenance station after correction is not much different from the 8 s actually required by the maintenance station without correction, but is quite different from the 10 s theoretically required. Therefore, the error of the maintenance station may be reduced to a certain extent after correction.

2.4 On the premise that the error detection of the cleaning robot becomes smaller and the error detection of the maintenance station becomes larger:

it is assumed that when the cleaning robot performs the first cleaning operation, it actually uses 10 ml of liquid, but it is detected that 8 ml of liquid is used, and the liquid consumption time is 8 s. The cleaning robot sends 8 ml to the maintenance station to recover the waste liquid.

In theory, the maintenance station needs to recover 8 ml of waste liquid, but when the maintenance station recovers for 8 seconds, the waste liquid of the cleaning robot has not yet been recovered completely, and the maintenance station needs to continue to recover for 2 seconds in order to recover the waste liquid of the cleaning robot completely. Therefore, the cleaning robot actually works for 10 seconds.

Liquid loss coefficient η=10/8=5/4.

Then, when the cleaning robot performs the second cleaning operation, it actually uses 6 ml of liquid, but it is detected that 4 ml of liquid is used, and the liquid consumption time is 4 s. The cleaning robot sends 4 ml to the maintenance station to recover the waste liquid.

Assuming that the liquid loss coefficient is not used for correction, the maintenance station theoretically needs to recover 4 ml of waste liquid, but only when the maintenance station actually recovers 6 ml of waste liquid, can all the waste liquid of the cleaning robot be recovered. Therefore, the maintenance station actually worked for 6 seconds.

If the liquid loss coefficient is used for correction, since Q=η*W=(5/4)*4=5, the recovery time of the maintenance station=5/1=5 after correction. The 5 s actually required by the maintenance station after correction is not much different from the 6 s actually required by the maintenance station without correction, so the error of the maintenance station may be reduced to a certain extent after correction.

As can be seen from the above description, the recovery error may be reduced by using the liquid loss coefficient to correct the liquid usage amount, so that the maintenance station can recover the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot quickly, accurately and reliably.

In some embodiments, in order to optimize the liquid loss coefficient and improve the accuracy of recovery again, the maintenance station may train and optimize the liquid loss coefficient in advance, record the liquid loss coefficient during each recovery operation, process all the liquid loss coefficients according to the centroid algorithm, least square method or variance algorithm to obtain the optimal liquid loss coefficient, and correct the liquid usage amount according to the optimal liquid loss coefficient. The maintenance station may be instructed to accurately and reliably recover the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot by obtaining and using the optimal liquid loss coefficient from many liquid loss coefficients. Thus, the optimized liquid loss coefficient is helpful to improve the recovery efficiency and accuracy of the maintenance station.

Embodiment 2

The embodiment of the present disclosure provides a method for recovering waste liquid, which may be applied to any suitable device. The device may be a cleaning robot or a mobile terminal, and the mobile terminal may be any of the following: a smart phone, a smart watch and a tablet computer.

Referring to FIG. 4, the method S200 for recovering the waste liquid includes:

S21. obtaining a liquid usage amount.

In this embodiment, the liquid usage amount may be detected by the cleaning robot using the structure provided in the above embodiment, e.g., detected by a clean liquid flowmeter, or detected by the cleaning robot using other detection structures. For example, a pressure sensor is installed at the bottom of the clean liquid tank of the cleaning robot, and the cleaning robot calculates the liquid usage amount according to the pressure sampled by the pressure sensor.

S22. sending the liquid usage amount to control the maintenance station to recover the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot according to the liquid usage amount.

This method can recover the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot quantitatively and intelligently without manual participation, thereby improving the recovery efficiency and improving the user experience.

In some embodiments, referring to FIG. 5, before S22 is executed, the method S200 for recovering waste liquid further includes S23: correcting the liquid usage amount. Correspondingly, S22 includes: sending the corrected liquid usage amount to control the maintenance station to recover the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot according to the corrected liquid usage amount.

In some embodiments, referring to FIG. 6, S23 includes:

S231. obtaining the liquid loss coefficient;

S232. correcting the liquid usage amount according to the liquid loss coefficient and the liquid usage amount.

In some embodiments, the liquid loss coefficient is calculated according to the historical recovery amount when the maintenance station recovers the waste liquid of the cleaning robot and the historical liquid consumption when the cleaning robot performs the cleaning operation.

In some embodiments, the historical recovery amount is calculated according to the historical recovery time when the maintenance station recovers the waste liquid of the cleaning robot and the unit recovery flow of the maintenance station. The historical liquid consumption is calculated according to the unit liquid consumption flow of the cleaning robot and the historical liquid consumption time.

In some embodiments, referring to FIG. 7, S21 includes:

S211. recording the actual liquid consumption time and the unit liquid consumption flow of the cleaning robot;

S212. determining the liquid usage amount according to the unit liquid consumption flow and the actual liquid consumption time of the cleaning robot.

It should be noted that, reference may be made to the method for recovering waste liquid provided in the above embodiments for technical details not described in detail in this embodiment.

Embodiment 3

The embodiment of the present disclosure provides a maintenance station, which is a device for maintaining a cleaning robot, and the maintenance station in this embodiment may recover the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot. In some embodiments, the maintenance station may also realize at least one of the following functions: providing power to the cleaning robot, adding liquid to the cleaning robot, and cleaning the mopping part carried by the cleaning robot.

The maintenance station includes at least one first processor and a first memory communicatively connected with the at least one first processor. The first memory stores a first instruction executable by the at least one first processor, and the first instruction, when executed by the at least one first processor, cause the at least one first processor to execute steps in each embodiment of the method for recovering waste liquid in Embodiment 1 above, e.g., steps S11 and S12 shown in FIG. 1.

By way of example, but not for limitation, referring to FIG. 8 and FIG. 9 together, the maintenance station 300 includes a housing 31, a cleaning assembly 32, a clean liquid supply assembly 33, a waste liquid collection assembly 34, a power supply assembly 35, a first processor 36 and a first memory 37.

The housing 31 is used for accommodating the above-mentioned components, and the bottom of the housing 31 is provided with an accommodating cavity 311 into which the cleaning robot may move.

The cleaning assembly 32 is installed in the accommodating cavity 311, and is used for cleaning the mopping part carried by the cleaning robot. In some embodiments, the mopping part includes other objects of suitable materials and shapes, such as mops or sponges. The mopping part is detachably installed at the bottom of the cleaning robot, and the cleaning robot may control the rotation of the mopping part.

The clean liquid supply assembly 33 is installed in the housing 31 for supplying clean liquid.

The waste liquid collection assembly 34 is installed in the housing 31 and arranged side by side with the clean liquid supply assembly 33 for extracting waste liquid. In some embodiments, referring to FIG. 9, the waste liquid collection assembly 34 includes a waste liquid storage tank 341, a waste liquid solenoid valve 342, a first waste liquid conduit 343, a waste liquid flowmeter 344, a fan assembly 345 and a second waste liquid conduit 346.

The waste liquid storage tank 341 is installed at the upper part of the housing 31 and arranged side by side with the cleaning liquid tank 331, and is used for storing waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot or waste liquid generated by cleaning the mopping part or the like.

The waste liquid storage tank 341 is provided with a liquid inlet. One end of the first waste liquid conduit 343 communicates with the liquid inlet and the other end thereof communicates with an output end of the fan assembly 345. The waste liquid solenoid valve 342 is installed on the first waste liquid conduit 343. The input end of the fan assembly 345 communicates with one end of the second waste liquid conduit 346, and the other end of the second waste liquid conduit 346 is accommodated in the housing 31.

The waste liquid flowmeter 344 is installed on the first waste liquid conduit 343 for detecting the unit recovery flow of the waste liquid.

The first processor 36 is electrically connected with the waste liquid flowmeter 344, the fan assembly 345 and the first memory 37 respectively, and controls the working state of the fan assembly 345.

When the maintenance station 300 needs to recover the waste liquid of the cleaning robot, the other end of the second waste liquid conduit 346 is connected with the waste liquid collection box of the cleaning robot, the first processor 36 controls the fan assembly 345 to work in an on state, and the fan assembly 345 draws the waste liquid from the waste liquid collection box of the cleaning robot back to the waste liquid storage box 341. In this way, the waste liquid flowmeter 344 may detect the unit recovery flow of the waste liquid flowing into the waste liquid storage box 341.

When the maintenance station 300 does not need to recover the waste liquid of the cleaning robot, the first processor 36 controls the fan assembly 345 to work in a dormant state.

It shall be appreciated that, the unit recovery flow may be variable or fixed, and the first processor 36 may adjust the waste liquid solenoid valve 342 or the fan assembly 345 according to rules to adjust the unit recovery flow. For example, the waste liquid flowmeter 344 sends the current unit recovery flow detected to the first processor 36, and the first processor 36 determines whether the current unit recovery flow matches a preset unit recovery flow. If the current unit recovery flow does not match the preset unit recovery flow and the current unit recovery flow is less than the preset unit recovery flow, then the first processor 36 may increase the working power of the fan assembly 345 to increase the rate of pumping the waste liquid. Alternatively, the first processor 36 may increase the opening of the waste liquid solenoid valve 342 to allow the inflow of more waste liquid.

If the current unit recovery flow does not match the preset unit recovery flow and the current unit recovery flow is greater than the preset unit recovery flow, then the first processor 36 may reduce the working power of the fan assembly 345 to reduce the rate of pumping the waste liquid. Alternatively, the first processor 36 may reduce the opening of the waste liquid solenoid valve 342 to block the inflow of more waste liquid.

In some embodiments, the waste liquid collection assembly 34 may also reliably detect whether all the waste liquid in the waste liquid collection box in the cleaning robot have been extracted. Referring to FIG. 10, the waste liquid collection assembly 34 further includes a liquid detection assembly 347 installed in the second waste liquid conduit 346 and electrically connected with the first processor 36 for detecting whether the waste liquid continuously passes through the second waste liquid conduit 346.

Generally, if the waste liquid still remains in the waste liquid collection box of the cleaning robot, the waste liquid will continue to pass through the second waste liquid conduit 346 under the action of the fan assembly 345 when the waste liquid collection assembly 24 collects the waste liquid from the waste liquid collection box. The liquid detection assembly 347 will generate a liquid signal indicating that the waste liquid remains in the cleaning robot 300. Therefore, the first processor 36 continues to control the fan assembly 345 to be in the on state to extract the waste liquid according to the liquid signal. When the liquid detection assembly 347 does not detect the liquid signal, it indicates that the waste liquid of the cleaning robot has been drained. Therefore, the first processor 36 controls the fan assembly 345 to be in a dormant state.

In some embodiments, still referring to FIG. 10, the liquid detection assembly 347 includes a first conductive pole piece 3471, a second conductive pole piece 3472, a sampling circuit 3473 and a signal amplifying circuit 3474.

The first conductive pole piece 3471 and the second conductive pole piece 3472 are separated by a preset distance and respectively installed on the inner side of the second waste liquid conduit 346. The sampling circuit 3473 is electrically connected with the first conductive pole piece 3471 and the second conductive pole piece 3472 respectively, and the signal amplifying circuit 3474 is electrically connected with the sampling circuit 3473 and the first processor 36 respectively, wherein the preset distance is user-defined, e.g., 1 cm, 2 cm or 5 cm or the like.

When the waste liquid continuously passes through the second waste liquid conduit 346, the waste liquid will short-circuit the first conductive pole piece 3471 and the second conductive pole piece 3472. Therefore, the first conductive pole piece 3471, the second conductive pole piece 3472 and the sampling circuit 3473 form a loop, and the sampling circuit 3473 generates a sampling voltage greater than 0. After the sampling voltage is amplified by the signal amplifying circuit 3474, an amplified signal is obtained. The amplified signal is sent to the first processor 36, and according to the amplified signal, the first processor 36 continues to control the fan assembly 345 to be in the on state to extract the waste liquid.

When the waste liquid does not pass through the second waste liquid conduit 346, the first conductive pole piece 3471, the second conductive pole piece 3472 and the sampling circuit 3473 cannot form a loop because the first conductive pole piece 3471 and the second conductive pole piece 3472 are in an open circuit. The sampling voltage of the sampling circuit 3473 is 0, and the first processor 36 controls the fan assembly 345 to be in a dormant state.

It shall be appreciated that, the sampling circuit 3473 may be composed of any suitable discrete devices. For example, the sampling circuit 3473 is composed of a resistor network, or a resistor and a capacitor, or a resistor, an electronic switch tube and a capacitor, or the like.

It shall be appreciated that, the signal amplifying circuit 3474 may be any amplifying circuit of suitable forms. For example, the signal amplifying circuit 3474 adopts an operational amplifier, or is a common-emitter amplifier circuit, a common-source amplifier circuit, or a common-gate amplifier circuit or the like.

The power supply assembly 35 is used for connecting with the charging assembly of the cleaning robot to provide power for the cleaning robot. In some embodiments, the power supply assembly 35 includes a power supply pole piece and a power supply circuit, and the power supply circuit converts the commercial power into a voltage suitable for the cleaning robot, e.g., a voltage of 5 volts or 12 volts, and the cleaning robot steps down and charges according to the voltage.

Embodiment 4

The embodiment of the present disclosure provides a cleaning robot, which is detailed as follows.

The cleaning robot includes at least one second processor and a second memory communicatively connected with the at least one second processor. The second memory stores second instructions executable by the at least one second processor, and the second instructions, when executed by the at least one second processor, cause the at least one second processor to perform steps in each embodiment of the method for recovering waste liquid in Embodiment 2 above, e.g., steps S21 and S22 shown in FIG. 4.

By way of example, but not for limitation, referring to FIG. 11 and FIG. 12 together, the cleaning robot 400 includes a main body 40, a water tank assembly 41, a second processor 42, a second memory 43, a sensing unit 44, a wireless communication unit 45, a cleaning unit 46 and a driving unit 47.

The main body 40 is used for protecting the cleaning robot 400, and a water tank assembly 41 is accommodated in the main body 40. The water tank assembly 41 includes a clean liquid tank assembly for providing clean liquid and a waste liquid collection tank assembly 48 for collecting waste liquid.

Referring to FIG. 13, the waste collection box assembly 48 includes a waste liquid filter assembly 481, a waste liquid collection box 482 and a fan module 483. The waste liquid filter assembly 481 is installed at the waste liquid collection port of the main body 40, and the waste liquid collection box 482 is installed at the bottom of the waste liquid filter assembly 481. The waste liquid collection box 482 is provided with a waste liquid collection port, and the fan module 483 is installed inside the main body 40. When the fan module 483 generates wind power, the wind power flows through the waste liquid collection port, the waste liquid filter assembly 481, the wind passage of the main body 40, the wind input end of the fan module 483, the wind output end of the fan module 483 and the external environment in turn.

When the cleaning robot performs the cleaning operation, the mopping part is sprayed wet and rubs against the floor. At the same time, the fan module 483 starts to work, and the wind draws the waste liquid generated by the mopping part on the floor into the waste liquid collection port. Then, the wind carrying the waste liquid moves centrifugally after passing through the waste liquid filter assembly 481, and the waste liquid falls into the waste liquid collection box 482 so that the waste liquid is collected by the waste liquid collection box 482.

As the control core of the cleaning robot 400, the second processor 42 may adopt various path planning algorithms to control the cleaning robot to perform traversal work.

The second memory 43 is electrically connected with the second processor 42, and the second memory 43 stores second instructions executable by the at least one second processor 42. The second instructions, when executed by the at least one second processor 42, cause the at least one second processor 42 to perform steps in each embodiment of the method for recovering waste liquid in Embodiment 2 above.

The sensing unit 44 is used to collect some motion parameters of the cleaning robot 400 and various types of environmental data. The sensing unit 44 includes various suitable sensors, such as an inertial measurement unit (IMU), a gyroscope, a magnetic field meter, an accelerometer or speedometer, a laser radar or an acoustic radar or the like.

The wireless communication unit 45 is electrically connected with the second processor 42. When traversing, the user sends a control instruction to the cleaning robot 400 through an external terminal, the wireless communication unit 45 receives the control instruction and sends the control instruction to the second processor 42, and the second processor 42 controls the cleaning robot 400 to complete the traversal work according to the control instruction. In some embodiments, the external terminal includes but is not limited to terminals such as a smart phone, a remote controller, a smart tablet and the like.

In some embodiments, the wireless communication unit 45 includes a combination of one or more of a broadcast receiving module, a mobile communication module, a wireless Internet module, a short-distance communication module and a positioning information module.

The cleaning unit 46 is used for cleaning the floor, and may be configured into any cleaning structure. For example, in some embodiments, the cleaning unit 46 includes a cleaning motor and a roller brush, the surface of the roller brush is provided with a cleaning part, and the roller brush is connected with the cleaning motor through a driving mechanism. The cleaning motor is connected with a control unit, and the control unit may send instructions to the cleaning motor to control the cleaning motor to drive the roller brush to rotate so that the cleaning part thereof can effectively clean the floor.

The driving unit 47 is used to drive the cleaning robot 400 to move forward or backward. During the cleaning operation, the second processor 42 sends a control instruction to the driving unit 47, and the driving unit 47 drives the cleaning unit 46 to complete the cleaning work according to the control instruction.

Embodiment 5

An embodiment of the present disclosure provides a system for recovering waste liquid. Referring to FIG. 14, the system 500 for recovering waste liquid includes the maintenance station 300 as described in Embodiment 3 above and the cleaning robot 400 as described in Embodiment 4 above. The cleaning robot 400 is communicatively with the maintenance station 300 through wireless communication or wired communication. For example, wireless communication may include any of the following: Bluetooth, WI-FI, Global System for Mobile communications (GSM communication), ZigBee communication (ZigBee, ZigBee protocol), and cellular mobile communication.

Embodiment 6

Referring to FIG. 15, and FIG. 15 is a schematic circuit structure diagram of an electronic device provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure. The electronic device may be any suitable type of electronic product. For example, the electronic device includes electronic products with logical calculation and analysis functions such as maintenance stations, cleaning robots, computers or mobile phones. As shown in FIG. 15, the electronic device 600 includes one or more processors 61 and a memory 62. In FIG. 15, one processor 61 is taken as an example.

The processor 61 and the memory 62 may be connected by a bus or other means, and the connection achieved by a bus is taken as an example in FIG. 15.

As a nonvolatile computer readable storage medium, the memory 62 may be used to store nonvolatile software programs, nonvolatile computer executable programs and modules, such as program instructions/modules corresponding to the method for recovering waste liquid in the embodiment of the present disclosure. The processor 61 executes the method for recovering waste liquid provided by the above embodiments of the method by running nonvolatile software programs, instructions and modules stored in the memory 62.

The memory 62 may include a high-speed random access memory, and may also include a nonvolatile memory, such as at least one magnetic disk memory device, flash memory device, or other nonvolatile solid-state memory device. In some embodiments, the memory 62 optionally includes memories remotely located relative to the processor 61, and these remote memories may be connected to the processor 61 through a network. Examples of the above network include but are not limited to the Internet, Intranet, local area networks, mobile communication networks and combinations thereof.

The program instructions/modules are stored in the memory 62, and when executed by the one or more processors 61, execute the method for recovering waste liquid in any of the above embodiments of the method.

The embodiments of the present disclosure also provide a nonvolatile computer storage medium, in which computer executable instructions are stored. The computer executable instructions, when executed by one or more processors, e.g., a processor 61 in FIG. 15, cause the one or more processors to execute the method for recovering waste liquid in any of the above embodiments of the method.

The embodiments of the present disclosure also provide a computer program product, which includes a computer program stored on a nonvolatile computer readable storage medium, and the computer program includes program instructions. The program instructions, when executed by an electronic device, cause the electronic device to execute any of the method for recovering waste liquids.

The embodiments of the above-described devices or equipments are only schematic. The unit modules described as separate components may or may not be physically separated, and components displayed as module units may or may not be physical units, that is, they may be located in one place or distributed over multiple network module units. Some or all of the modules may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of this embodiment.

From the description of the above embodiments, those skilled in the art may clearly understand that each embodiment may be realized by means of software plus a general hardware platform, and of course, it may also be realized by hardware. Based on such understanding, the essence of the above technical solution or the part that contributes to related technologies may be embodied in the form of software products. The computer software products may be stored in computer-readable storage media, such as a ROM/RAM, a magnetic disk, an optical disk or the like, and they include several instructions to make a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) execute the method described in various embodiments or some parts of embodiments.

Finally, it shall be noted that, the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solution of the present disclosure, but not to limit the present disclosure. Under the idea of the present disclosure, technical features in the above embodiments or different embodiments may also be combined, the steps may be realized in any order, and many other variations in different aspects of the present disclosure as described above are possible, and these variations are not provided in details for conciseness. Although the present disclosure has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, those of ordinary skill in the art shall appreciate that, the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments may still be modified or some of the technical features may be equivalently replaced. These modifications or substitutions do not make the essence of the corresponding technical solutions deviate from the scope of the technical solutions of various embodiment of the present disclosure. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for recovering waste liquid, comprising: obtaining a liquid usage amount of a cleaning robot; and controlling a maintenance station to recover the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot according to the liquid usage amount.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the controlling a maintenance station to recover the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot according to the liquid usage amount comprises: determining a recovery amount of the waste liquid according to the liquid usage amount; and controlling the maintenance station to recover the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot according to the recovery amount of the waste liquid.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein before determining the recovery amount of the waste liquid according to the liquid usage amount, the method further comprises: obtaining a liquid loss coefficient; correspondingly, determining the recovery amount of the waste liquid according to the liquid usage amount comprises: determining the recovery amount of the waste liquid according to the liquid loss coefficient and the liquid usage amount.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the determining the recovery amount of the waste liquid according to the liquid loss coefficient and the liquid usage amount comprises: sending the liquid loss coefficient to the cleaning robot so that the cleaning robot corrects the liquid usage amount according to the liquid loss coefficient to obtain and return a correction amount of the waste liquid, and determining the recovery amount of the waste liquid according to the correction amount of the waste liquid.
 5. The method of claim 3, wherein the determining the recovery amount of the waste liquid according to the liquid loss coefficient and the liquid usage amount comprises: calculating the correction amount of the waste liquid according to the liquid loss coefficient and the liquid usage amount, and determining the recovery amount of the waster liquid according to the correction amount of the waste liquid.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the correction amount of the waste liquid is: Q=η*W, wherein Q is the correction amount of the waste liquid, T is the liquid loss coefficient, and W is the liquid usage amount.
 7. The method of claim 3, wherein the liquid loss coefficient is calculated according to a historical recovery amount when the maintenance station recovers the waste liquid of the cleaning robot and a historical liquid consumption when the cleaning robot performs the cleaning operation.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the liquid loss coefficient is: η=(M/N)*100%, where η is the liquid loss coefficient, M is the historical recovery amount, and N is the historical liquid consumption.
 9. The method of claim 8 wherein: the historical recovery amount is calculated according to a historical recovery time when the maintenance station recovers the waste liquid of the cleaning robot and a unit recovery flow of the maintenance station; the historical liquid consumption is calculated according to a unit liquid consumption flow and a historical liquid consumption time of the cleaning robot.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the controlling the maintenance station to recover the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot according to the liquid usage amount comprises: calculating a current recovery time according to the liquid usage amount; and controlling the maintenance station to recover the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot according to the current recovery time and a designated recovery time.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining a liquid usage amount of a cleaning robot comprises: obtaining a waste liquid recovery instruction sent by the cleaning robot, the waste liquid recovery instruction packaging the liquid usage amount; and extracting the liquid usage amount from the waste liquid recovery instruction.
 12. The method of claim 1, wherein a pressure sensor is provided at a bottom of a clean liquid tank of the cleaning robot, the obtaining a liquid usage amount of a cleaning robot comprises: obtaining an initial pressure sent by the pressure sensor when the cleaning operation is started; obtaining the last pressure sent by the pressure sensor again when the cleaning robot drives back to the maintenance station; subtracting the initial pressure from the last pressure to obtain a pressure difference; and calculating the liquid usage amount according to the pressure difference.
 13. A method for recovering waste liquid, comprising: obtaining a liquid usage amount; and sending the liquid usage amount to control a maintenance station to recover the waste liquid collected by a cleaning robot according to the liquid usage amount.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein before sending the liquid usage amount, the method further comprises: correcting the liquid usage amount; correspondingly, the sending the liquid usage amount to control a maintenance station to recover the waste liquid collected by a cleaning robot according to the liquid usage amount comprises: sending the corrected liquid usage amount to control the maintenance station to recover the waste liquid collected by the cleaning robot according to the corrected liquid usage amount.
 15. The method of claim 13, wherein the correcting the liquid usage amount comprises: obtaining a liquid loss coefficient; and correcting the liquid usage amount according to the liquid loss coefficient and the liquid usage amount.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein the liquid loss coefficient is calculated according to a historical recovery amount when the maintenance station recovers the waste liquid of the cleaning robot and a historical liquid consumption when the cleaning robot performs the cleaning operation.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein: the historical recovery amount is calculated according to a historical recovery time when the maintenance station recovers the waste liquid of the cleaning robot and a unit recovery flow of the maintenance station; the historical liquid consumption is calculated according to a unit liquid consumption flow and a historical liquid consumption time of the cleaning robot.
 18. The method of claim 13, wherein the obtaining the liquid usage amount comprises: recording an actual liquid consumption time of the cleaning robot and the unit liquid consumption flow of the cleaning robot; and determining the liquid usage amount according to the unit liquid consumption flow and the actual liquid consumption time of the cleaning robot.
 19. The method of claim 13, wherein the sending the liquid usage amount to control a maintenance station to recover the waste liquid collected by a cleaning robot according to the liquid usage amount comprises: packaging the liquid usage amount into a waste liquid recovery instruction; and sending the waste liquid recovery instruction to the maintenance station, such that the maintenance station extracts the liquid usage amount from the waste liquid recovery instruction.
 20. A maintenance station, comprising: at least one processor; and a memory communicatively connected with the at least one processor; wherein the memory stores instructions capable of being executable by the at least one processor to enable the at least one processor to execute the method of claim
 1. 